LITTLE CURRENT—Walk or drive by Little Current United Church on Robinson Street and you’ll see a brightly painted orange picnic table as a new outdoor installation on the front lawn.
The table is meant as a meeting place for conversation and the exchange of ideas.
It’s painted orange in honour of the “Every Child Matters” movement and this statement and accompanying eagle feather are rendered on the tabletop by Manitoulin artist Cliff Jewell.
There’s also a large accompanying sign, affixed to the nearby fence, that is meant as a learning tool. It lays out the history of treaty agreements that impacted the First Nations people of Manitoulin District and makes reference to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (that presented its recommendations exactly one decade ago) among other useful observations.
Conversations at this table will be as diverse as the people who sit down there and exchange ideas, but it was the choice of this church to give its table this particular theme.
The Little Current United Church picnic table is one of 100 such tables placed outside United Churches across Canada, each one with its own theme reflecting something of importance to its community.
The table in Little Current is the only one on Manitoulin in this program. Other nearby tables are at United Churches in Massey and Thessalon. There are two in Sudbury and one in Sault Ste. Marie, each one with its own unique focus.
As part of her sermon on Sunday, Rev. Whitney Bruno recalled that, 30 years ago, the United Church of Canada, meeting for its biannual General Council that year in Sudbury, devised an apology to Canada’s First Nations citizens for the national church’s role in the residential school program, the first national church to take this initiative. She quoted then-United Church Moderator Right Reverend Bob Smith who said at that moment, “We ask you to forgive us and to walk together with us in the Spirit of Christ so that our peoples may be blessed and God’s creation healed.” This statement is one of the messages on the outdoor sign beside the orange picnic table.
Rev. Bruno, who had participated in this summer’s edition of the national church’s General Council as a delegate, noted that she had heard other participants observe “I’m so sick of apologizing. How long do we have to do this!” and “Making white people the bad guys in every story is becoming trying” and “But what more can we do? and “It’s only about and always about money- they always want more money.”
Before she led the congregation outside to participate in the formal dedication of the table, Rev. Bruno observed, “We are not reconciled, there is still atonement to be done and repentance to be manifested, racism to rout out.”
Following the table’s dedication, conversations on important topics did begin around it.
Rev. Bruno had planned to be at the table on “Orange Shirt Day” Tuesday, September 30 (the day the federal government has declared an annual federal statutory holiday in honour of the day the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission were accepted by the Government of Canada) to play the “The and Reconciliation Board Game” with anyone who wants to participate. (The game was developed by Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory member James Darin Corbiere.)